In a world on the brink of war, four superpowered teens must learn to work together for peace in Caitlin Lochner’s action-packed debut novel, A Soldier and A Liar.
Lai Cathwell is good at keeping secrets. As a Nyte, a supernaturally gifted teenager who is feared and shunned by the ungifted, this skill is essential to survival. Orchestrating her own imprisonment to escape military duty has only honed her ability to deceive others. But when rebels start attacking the city, Lai is dragged back into the fight with a new team of Nytes.
Thrown together with Jay, a self-conscious perfectionist consumed by the desire to be accepted; Al, a short-tempered fighter lying for the sake of revenge; and Erik, an amnesiac hell-bent on finding his memories and his place in the world, Lai realizes she’s facing an entirely different kind of challenge–one that might just be impossible. But if this team can’t learn to work together, the entire sector will be plunged into war.

1.Did you always know you wanted to
be a writer or did you want to be something else?

Oh, I always
knew I wanted to be a writer, for sure. But in high school, I took some architecture/engineering-focused
drafting classes and really fell in love with the work, and since I knew being
a published author wasn’t a realistic career path, I decided to pursue
architecture. I thought I would be an architect as my Real Life Adult Job and
write books on the side.

However, a
year into majoring in pre-architecture in university, I faced some pretty
crushing disappointment with my lack of ability in the field. I ended up
deciding to continue my love of architecture as a hobby and switched majors to
Creative Writing—a choice which has opened so many doors and great
opportunities for me. I’m still trying to figure out what my Real Life Adult
Job will be, but I can safely say I’ve never regretted my decision to pursue
writing seriously.

2.What elements do you think make a
great story line?

For me, it’s
characters all the way! I think there are a lot of essential components to a
good story, like sustained tension, conflict that doesn’t rely on
miscommunication or otherwise easily solvable problems, and continuous
obstacles that lead to character growth, but for me, the difference between a
good story and a truly great story lies in the characters and their
relationships with one another.

I love flawed
characters and unlikable characters (when done right), characters whose
morality is a bit gray, characters who struggle and fight and just keep going no matter how many times they
fall. I love watching characters’ relationships, both platonic and romantic,
develop over the course of the story. I love watching female characters in
particular support one another and sustain ride-or-die friendships. I love
complicated, messy friendships and banter and characters with history having to
make hard choices involving the people in their lives. I think it’s just so
exciting to see how far characters can go.

3.How many books have you written so
far? Do you have a favorite?

I think I’m
up to nine now (although A Soldier and a
Liar is the only one published). And so many unfinished 50K starts of books
and even more shorter beginnings that I never felt passionate enough about to
continue.

I started
writing seriously back in high school, when I participated in my first
NaNoWriMo in 2009. I finished my first book that year, but it was…not great. I
scrapped it pretty quickly, and basically repeated this process until I wrote
book #5 in 2011. That was the very first (very awful) draft of what would
eventually become A Soldier and a Liar.
But it was bad. Like, really, really bad. So although I loved the characters
and certain aspects of the story, I moved on to book #6. I enjoyed writing it,
and might someday even unearth it and give it the total revamp it would need to
be readable, but it didn’t have the same spark that #5 had for me. So I took
the characters and bits that I loved from #5, scrapped the rest, and did a
total rewrite with a better plot and more interesting events. This became book
#7, which I would continue to edit, rewrite, cut, add to, and rewrite yet again
for several years, until I posted it on Swoon Reads in the fall of 2015 and it
was selected for publication early the next year.

I worked on
another book between edits on A Soldier
and a Liar (there would sometimes be months before I’d hear back from my
editor about the next round of edits, and I couldn’t not be working on something), and I finished that book at the end
of October last year. Lucky #8. But because NaNoWriMo was right around the
corner, and because I had participated every year for the last ten years, of course I needed to write a new book.
And so that book became #9.

As for my
favorite, it’s a really, really hard toss up between #7 (A Soldier and a Liar) and #8, which I would love to talk more
about, but probably shouldn’t until I hear more from my editor.

4.Where do you write?

I love to write in cafes! Anywhere there are
other people working is great, though. There’s just something really nice about
being surrounded by people who are also getting stuff done. Plus it adds just
enough pressure for me to feel like I should be working!

5.What kinds of things do you like to
do outside of writing?

I feel like
I’m probably a very boring person, to be honest. I love reading, playing video
games (terribly), watching anime and cartoons, scrapbooking, studying Japanese,
and singing when no one else is around to hear me.

6.Do you have any go to people when
writing a book that help you with your story lines as well as editing, beta
reading and such?

Oh,
absolutely! I have a core group of writer friends I trust, almost all of whom I
met in high school and have continued to be great friends with since. Whenever
I’m stuck or need advice on my writing, I always ask one or more of them for
their thoughts. They’re always incredibly supportive and helpful. None of us
really have time for beta reading entire novels anymore, especially now that I
have deadlines, but we read one another’s works and offer feedback when we can.

7.Are you
working on anything now?

Yes! My current WIP (#9) is a
Japanese-based fantasy about an empire of floating islands and that country’s
prince trying to stop a coup d’état and save his family while trying to figure
out what kind of person he really wants to be. It’s been a lot of fun to write
and figure out who the characters are, but it still needs a lot of work before
I can consider trying to publish it.

8.Tell us
5 things that make you smile.

Other than the obvious ones like my
amazing family and friends: coffee, music, Kingdom Hearts, hearing from readers, and chocolate (specifically dark).

Author Bio:
(Um, so, wow bios are hard.) I studied creative writing at the University of South Florida and used my BA in words to become an English teaching assistant in Tokyo. I’m in love with storytelling of any kind, but especially in the form of books, manga, and video games. If you ever want to talk nerdy, I am VERY down.

Nineteen-year-old Langley is crazy…like get out the straight jacket and prepare the padded room kind of crazy. She knows it, and the kicker is—she’s choosing to stay that way. She clings to the persistent and intrusive hallucination of her dead sister by choice. Sure, it might be nice to live life in the real world. But not if it means she has to let Sarah go.

Tupper’s life is charmed. He has loving adoptive parents, and several athletic college scholarships on the table. But his passion is for the arts, for the beauty of solid ink lines on paper. His illustrations are eerily similar to a keepsake from his birth mother, Anna: comic-book-style drawings scrawled across an old map…her version of a travel diary. At eighteen, Tupper sidesteps his planned future and starts his journey where Anna’s ended—following her map from Kansas City to Canada. His travels will put him on a collision course with Langley, and their bond is palpable from the start. But secrets will push between them—Sarah and Anna, two ghosts who could sink their icy fingers into the teens and tear them apart.

Perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover’s Hopeless and John Green’s Paper Towns, TRAVEL DIARY OF THE DEAD & DELUSIONAL is a unique and robust novel that explores themes of mental-illness and self-discovery from three distinct perspectives. Lauren Nicolle Taylor is the award-winning and best-selling author of Nora and Kettle and the beloved Woodlands series, among others.

“A story of love and loss, adventure, and coming into one’s own, Travel Diaries of the Dead and Delusional is a thoughtful, poignant road trip adventure that delivers hope through its melancholy.” ~Hannah Williams, Foreword Reviews Magazine

Author Bio:
Lauren is the bestselling author of THE WOODLANDS SERIES and the award-winning YA novel NORA & KETTLE (Gold medal Winner for Multicultural fiction, Independent Publishers Book Awards 2017).
She has a Health Science degree and an honors degree in Obstetrics and Gynecology. A full time writer, hapa and artist, Lauren lives in the tucked away, Adelaide hills with her husband and three children.

Pekin Dewlap hasn’t seen a ghost since she was twelve. But she’d do anything to get them back. Starting a ghostbusting business with her two best friends, Amber and Scout, seems like the perfect way to accomplish her goal. Of course, playing with ghosts isn’t high on their wish list, so Pekin has to do some arm-twisting to get them on board.
Once committed, Pekin and her friends find themselves in deep, trying to solve the disappearance of fourteen-year-old Miranda Talbert. Miranda went missing in 1918, and her spirit has wandered the halls of Elmwood Manor for the last hundred years.
In the midst of finding Miranda, discovering her budding feelings for Scout, and consoling a terrified Amber, Pekin is met by an angry ghost set on thwarting her plans. Will the Ghosties be able to help Miranda, or will Pekin’s business die before she solves the mystery?

Author Bio:
Pam was born in Arkansas several decades ago. She’s not sure if that makes her a Southern Girl or if moving to Southern California when she was five revokes her Southern Girl card. She started writing later in life when she was challenged by a friend to create a book out of his story idea. Reaching the first 5,000 words was a milestone, but with time and hard work she managed to finish an entire book, much to her surprise. Since then, she’s written several novels, in several genres. Romance, middle grade and paranormal comprise most of her work. Pam has spent over 40 years working as a legal secretary at a law firm in Orange County, California. Aside from writing, she follows the stock market, buying, selling and trading stocks and options. In contrast to that, she loves trips to Las Vegas where she can spend many happy hours at the Pai Gow tables. She shares a condo with her very own My Cat From Hell TV star, Allie, who manages to exude just enough affection to make her scary feral ways tolerable.

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Everyone we love, everything we know, is going away… and only an autistic boy can stop it.
Alex knows exactly how many steps it takes to get from his home to Mason Middle School. This is normal.
Alex knows the answers in AP math before his teacher does, which is also normal.
Alex knows that something bad is coming out of the big screen in his special needs class. It’s pushing images into his head, hurting him, making him forget. Alex pushes back, the screen explodes, and nothing is normal any more.
Giant screen televisions appear all over the city. The programming is addictive. People have to watch, but Alex cannot.
Sophie, the sentient machine behind all this, sees the millions and millions of eyeballs glued to her and calls it love. To Sophie, kids like Alex are defective. Defectives are to be fixed…or eliminated.

1. Did you always know you wanted
to be a writer or did you want to be something else?

One of my earliest memories: I was sitting
at the dining room table in the house where I grew up, writing a story on my
parents’ Underwood typewriter. My eyes were just about on a level with the top
of the typewriter (I think five or six years old maybe?). So I guess that was a
pretty early decision on my part for who I wanted to be. I didn’t take myself
seriously—or even semi-seriously—as a writer until college, when I wrote for
the school newspaper and a couple of underground rags. I wrote a deservedly
unpublished book about Berkeley in the 60s, but that was it until I moved to LA
and began writing for television.

2. How long does it take you to
write a book from start to finish?

Too long. I envy writers who can turn out two or three books a
year. Losing Normal, from the germ of
the idea until publication, took 4 years. I will finish my second novel, KillGirl, by March, but have been
working on it since 2016. Maybe by the time I’m in my eighties, I’ll be able to
write a book in one year. The next book—Tommy
Collins: One Lad’s Adventures—is for middle grade readers, so it’ll be
shorter. I have hopes.

3. How do you come up with themes
for your stories?

My stories come to me as events, or scenes, maybe because of my
screenwriting background. Sometimes, as with Alex, as characters. But the
themes kind of wind up in my writing in spite of me.

I did one of those DVD extras video interview for a television
show I’d written and story-edited, and the interviewer asked, “What made you
decide to write an episode about freedom of speech?”

I replied: “I did?”

4. Do you have a schedule of when
you write?

I write in the mornings. I’m an early riser, so I can get a fair
amount done before the sun is up.

5. How are you able to balance
other aspects of your life with your writing?

I’m good at juggling and putting things
off.

6. What elements do you think make
a great story line?

My favorite stories usually involve a fish out of water, an
underdog, or an unimaginable peril. A screenwriter once told me (I think it
wasn’t original with him) to think about stories in the light of the three act
structure: in Act One, get your hero up a tree; in Act Two, throw rocks at him;
in Act Three, get him out of the tree. A writing teacher’s favorite meme was “something
of importance must depend on the outcome.”

7. What was the hardest thing about
writing a book?

Rewriting. Over and over and over again.
Then struggling to decide if it’s good enough.

8. How many books have you written
so far? Do you have a favorite?

A long time ago, I wrote (with my then-writing partner, Ted
Pedersen, who died a few years ago) three non-fiction, how-to books for kids,
all traditionally published. On my own, a few years later, I wrote a
middle-grade – young adult history of the Rosenberg espionage case, also
traditionally published.

9. Do you have a favorite
character?

I love Alex, but have an affection
for hard-ass Sara, kind of identify with Mr. Crumley, and even feel a little
sorry for Sophie.

10. Where do you write?

In my
combination office/man cave/TV room/ laundry room.

11. When deciding on how to
publish, what directed you to the route you took?

One hundred-plus rejections from agents was kind of a motivator.

12. Have you gotten feedback from
family about your book(s)? What do they think?

My wife, Phyllis, was an early reader and when I realized that
something in the book wasn’t working, remains fond of telling me, “I told you
so.” But she loves the book.

13. What kinds of things do you
like to do outside of writing?

Travel, making things for the house, active in local politics.

14. What kinds of advice would you
give to someone who wants to start writing?

All the clichés come to mind: “write every day,” “kill all your
darlings,” “good writing is rewriting.” I would add to those, find a group of
writers to share your work with.

15. What is your favorite book?
favorite author? Do you have an author that inspired/inspires you to
write?

I started reading very young, with flashlight under the
bedcovers. I have a hundred or more favorite books and authors, each with
different things to admire. I think what inspires me may be in the nature of a
compulsion; I wouldn’t know what to do if I weren’t writing.

16. Do you have any go to people
when writing a book that help you with your story lines as well as editing,
beta reading and such?

I belong to a local writers group, meeting twice monthly, and
persuaded/nagged three fellow writers to give me feedback on early drafts of Losing Normal.

17. Are you working on anything
now?

I’m about 50,000 words into a third draft of KillGirl.

18. Tell us 5 things that make you
smile.

A good day of writing, a good book review, Ernie Kovacs, Laurel
& Hardy (is that one thing or two?), living close to nature, listening to
my wife and her fellow musicians play.

19. Tell us 5 things that make you
sad.

The state of our government, the fear and hatred that divide our
country, getting old, losing friends, knowing I’ll never be able to time
travel.

20. If you could travel anywhere in
the world to visit a place so you could use it as a background for a book,
where would it be?

I have two trips in various stages of planning: Brooklyn, for
research on KillGirl, and England,
for research on Tommy Collins.

Author Bio:
Francis Moss has written and story-edited hundreds of hours of scripts on many of the top animated shows of the 90s and 00s. Beginning his television work in live-action with Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, he soon starting writing cartoons ("a lot more jobs, and also more fun"), staff writing and freelancing on She-Ra, Princess of Power, Iron Man, Ducktales, and a four-year stint on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, writing and story-editing more episodes than you can swing a nuchaku at.
One of his TMNT scripts, "The Fifth Turtle," was the top-rated script among all the 193 episodes in a fan poll on IGN.COM. A list of his television credits is at IMDB.COM.
Francis, in partnership with Ted Pedersen, also wrote three middle-grade non-fiction books: Internet For Kids, Make Your Own Web Page, and How To Find (Almost) Anything On The Internet. Internet For Kids was a big success, with three revised editions and twelve foreign language versions. He's the sole author of The Rosenberg Espionage Case.
After high school where he grew up in Los Angeles, Francis had one dismal semester at a junior college, and then enlisted in the Army. He became a military policeman and served in Poitiers, France, falling in love with the country, taking his discharge there and traveling around Europe (including running with the bulls in Pamplona) until his money ran out.
He attended the University of California, Berkeley and became active in the civil rights and anti-war movements, still managing to earn a BA and an MA in English lit ("the major of choice for wannabe writers").
Francis is married to Phyllis, a former music teacher and active viola player. They have a son, a daughter and one grandson. They live in Joshua Tree, California.

Thursday, January 24, 2019

Would you dare to defy destiny? Are our destinies written in stone? Do we become nothing more than the self-fulfilling prophesies of other people's opinions? Or can we dare to become who we believe we were born to be?

“A gorgeous, heartfelt journey of redemption and love” (Wendy Higgins), ONLY A BREATH APART is a young adult contemporary novel from critically acclaimed Katie McGarry. “Haunting, authentic, and ultimately hopeful” (Tammara Webber), order your copy of ONLY A BREATH APART now!

About ONLY A BREATH APART:

They say your destiny is carved in stone. But some destinies are meant to be broken.

The only curse Jesse Lachlin believes in is his grandmother’s will: in order to inherit his family farm he must win the approval of his childhood best friend, the girl he froze out his freshman year.

A fortuneteller tells Scarlett she's psychic, but what is real is Scarlett’s father’s controlling attitude and the dark secrets at home. She may be able to escape, but only if she can rely on the one boy who broke her heart.

Each midnight meeting pushes Jesse and Scarlett to confront their secrets and their feelings, but as love blooms, the curse rears its ugly head…

Hot isn’t exactly the word I would use for him. Hot somehow
feels…lacking. Hot is for some boy in our gym class who has recently grown
facial hair. Jess Lachlin is no boy. He has fire-red hair, a sun kissed tan
from all the hours working on his land, deep green eyes and a body made to
handle rough, rugged days.

I might have been ignoring Jesse for years, but I’ve seen
him. Every girl in this school has gone out of her way to drive or walk along
one of the country roads to watch Jesse as he works his land. Living across the
street, I’ve had a front-row view. His shirt off, drenched in sweat, muscles
rippling as he moves, the way he sometimes pauses in his front yard and looks
across the road as if he knows I’m watching. A fluttering in my chest and then—

“Would you date him?” Evangeline asks.

“No.” Camila’s answer is swift. “And it’s not like he dates
anyone. Except for his friends, the boy is a recluse.”

“Why wouldn’t you?” The kneejerk question surprises even me
when it pops out of my mouth. Camila and Evangeline look at me as if those were
the first words I’d ever spoken. If I could hide under the circulation desk
without making this moment worse, I would.

“Besides the fact he’s cursed and anyone a Lachlin falls in
love with drops dead?” Camila walks toward me and Evangeline follows. Camila
watches me with more curiosity than I care for, but it’s nice that she’s moving
the conversation in my direction. “Jesse’s a train wreck, and he taints anyone
in his vicinity. Dating him would be a social, emotional and literal death
sentence.”

I’m familiar with the curse, and it’s no truer than Glory
and her prophesies. “That sounds melodramatic.”

“It’s not.” Camila has a swear-to-God seriousness to her.
“Mom and Dad had Bible study at our house last night, and Pastor Hughes came.
Everyone thought I was in the basement, but I went to the kitchen for something
to drink, and I heard Pastor Hughes ask everyone what they knew about Jesse.”

Eavesdropping. How Camila.

“Did you know that before Veronica started hanging with
Jesse that she was on track to be a concert pianist?” Camila says.

“Seriously?” Evangeline tilts her head in disbelief, and
I’ll admit to putting down my cell.

“Seriously. And Leo Wheeling was a star soccer player,
predicted to be the first freshman to play varsity for our high school, and
then he started hanging out with Jesse.”

Faint middle school memories of hearing Leo’s name over the
announcements regarding soccer emerge in my mind.

“Then someone said that before Nazareth Kravitz moved here,
he had taken the ACT in the seventh grade and received a perfect score. He
moved here, met Jesse and the rest is history.”

Nazareth sleeps through most of our classes, that is, when
he bothers showing for school.

I nibble on my bottom lip as I’m not sure how much I like
the Jesse-is-the-devil enthusiasm. I may share the opinion, but that doesn’t
mean anyone else should.

“Of course, then there’s Jesse himself. Drinking, drugs.”

“The fights,” Evangeline pipes in.

“Don’t forget the suspensions—”

“And he’s been arrested!” Evangeline finishes Camila’s
statement like the two share a brain. Her eyes sparkle like that precious piece
of scandalous gossip was just too good not to spread.

“The boy is a walking disaster,” Camila continues. “Anyone
who hangs out with him wants to
become a loser. It doesn’t matter he’s going to be a millionaire once he sells
his grandmother’s land. Anyone who spends time with Jesse is asking for hurt.”

“And death.”

“Gritty and real, Only a Breath Apart is a story of hope conjured from pain, strength drawn from innocence, and love earned from self-respect. Beautiful, poignant, and fierce.”
―Kristen Simmons, critically acclaimed author of the Article 5 series

Katie McGarry Bio:
Katie is the author of the PUSHING THE LIMITS series, THUNDER ROAD series, SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME, and the upcoming YA novel, ONLY A BREATH APART. Her novels have received starred reviews, critical acclaim and have won multiple awards including being a multiple Goodreads Choice Award Finalist for YA Fiction, multiple RT Magazine's Reviewer's Choice Award Finalist for Best YA Fiction, including a win in the category, and she was a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Teen Pick.